Encourage new growth with a summer haircut
Pruning is a gardening job we mostly associate with winter, cutting back in preparation for the busy growth of spring and summer. However, there are a number of plants which will either need or benefit from being trimmed or pruned in summer as well.
Wisteria is one such species which needs a summer pruning to cut back all those whippy stems. You can train some of these to where you want it to twine but it’s so rampant it usually needs a summer haircut. By doing this, you are encouraging it to use its energy into forming buds for next year’s flowers.
The same applies to laburnum if you have it trained over an arch. Clip the tree back to just above a leaf nodule.
Other climbers that are looking very tangled and messy can also be tidied up. I have a Solanum jasminoides which if left untamed I think would climb over the roof – and honeysuckles can also sometimes lose the run of themselves.
And if your Clematis montana has gone a bit unruly, you can shear unwanted growth away now. With Group 2 clematis, those that produce large blooms in early summer, you can prune back stems which have finished flowering to a pair of buds just below the spent blossoms and this will encourage new growth.
Hedges, be they conifer, deciduous or evergreen, can be trimmed during the summer if they are growing too wayward or just need a tidy.
It’s a particularly good time to do your conifers but remember not to cut back into old wood as they won’t recover (yew being the exception to this rule).
Bamboos that have put on a lot of growth can be trimmed if they are getting too tall or starting to droop over pathways and getting in the way.
And if you’re actively looking for something to do, a nice project is to trim some of the lower leaves of the bamboo away to expose more of the stem, which is so decorative.
Fruit trees that are espalier or cordon trained can be summer pruned.
This means cutting off new lateral growth back to four or five buds, allowing the plant to direct all its reserves to ripening the existing fruit and forming buds for next year.
Apple and pears grown as trees can be left for winter pruning but it’s definitely the right time of year to prune plums and cherries, if they need it, as this is when the spores of silver leaf disease are dormant so chances of infection are less.
You can also tip prune figs to encourage bushier growth and more fruit buds.
Rambling and climbing roses can look messy now with lots of brown faded flowers – you can cut out the flowering stems and tie in new stems.
Early summer-flowering shrubs such as deutzia, philadelphus and weigela can also be pruned after flowering, or if they’re outgrowing their allotted space.
One more situation where you might wield your loppers is the removal of branches lower down a